Question of the Month: November 2017 edition

It’s that time again: the question of the month is back and will see us attempt to answer a quandary that has been puzzling the gaming community since it first found itself standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. We’re going up against our friends and blogging neighbours in order to find the ultimate response in less than 100 words – and we’re asking you to choose the winner by voting in our poll.

Results: if you needed a mercenary, which video game character would you hire?

We received 21 votes in our September poll and you lovely people voted for the following…

Congratulations to Athena from AmbiGaming and the Iron Bull from Dragon Age: Inquisition for being our winners! A big thank you to all of our competitors for taking part and to you amazing people for voting. Now let’s see the competition start to heat up for the next question of the month…

November’s question: which game character wears the least appropriate clothing for the activity they’re doing?

We’ve all made a dodgy fashion choice at least once in our lifetime: greying socks with sandals; brightly-coloured velour tracksuits; shell-suits that rustle when you walk. But there are video game characters who dress even more inappropriately for their job! Let’s reveal our contenders for the November 2017 trophy…

Answer 1: The Xanthous Set from Dark Souls

Kevin from The Mental Attic says: “It really doesn’t matter how skilful a warrior the chosen undead is, or how many souls they’ve acquired and consumed, because wearing a cloth armour with a headpiece that looks like a gigantic yellow lollipop (or a giant wooden spoon) is bound to get in your way. It has to mess up with your balance at the very least… it also offers no real protection to speak of and try to get up after falling, your massive head will make sure you can’t! The Xanthous Set, look at it and laugh.”

Kim from Later Levels says: “Jack from Mass Effect 2 was way ahead of her time when the game was released in 2010. Seven years later, it’s estimated that a third of the UK population have at least one tattoo; and celebrities such as Kate Hudson and Cara Delevigne are making the buzzcut popular. But wearing just a set of thin leather straps to cover your modesty? It’s surprising that someone as private and troubled as Jack could wear such an outfit. Forget her being wanted for crimes including piracy, vandalism and murder – what she should really be banged up for is crimes against fashion.”

Answer 6: Link from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

NekoJonez from NekoJonez’s Gaming Blog says: “There is an armor piece that explains my point: how does this protect Link against the heat of a desert?! While the armor sets in Breath of the Wild have a nice look to them, they seem unpractical to carry the huge inventory you can carry in the game. You would think that he has a carrying bag or something, but he seems to put it all in his side pocket. Why does Link have no survival outfit?”

Answer 7: The Boss from Saints Row IV series

Chris from OverThinker Y says: “The Boss of the eponymous Saint’s Row crew gets up to a lot of fun things over an illustrious career. Gang leader, bank robber… oh, yeah, President of the freakin’ US of A. When we join the story in Saints Row IV, the Boss is wearing a hilariously bad suit, as befits a ridiculously unqualified leader of the free world, but pretty soon events conspire to trap them in a simulation world run by evil aliens. Once you’re in the simulation, you can change the Boss’s appearance and wardrobe as you like, meaning that you can quite easily create a POTUS who’s beating up aliens with a dildo bat in full gimp gear, a panda suit, or naked as the day they were born. Fitting accouterments for a ninja superhero gang boss alien murderer, less so for the most powerful person in America.”

Answer 8: Violette Summer from Velvet Assassin

Athena from AmbiGaming says: “Really obscure, but Violette Summer from Velvet Assassin, who is a character based on WWII British spy Violette Szabó. During special bullet-time sequences, all her clothes fall of and she becomes inexplicably more powerful. I mean, it ‘makes sense’ in the game insofar as it’s given an explanation but, when playing the game it’s really weird.”

Answer 9: Ada Wong from the Resident Evil series

Adhiraj from Gamers’ Nation says: “If you love survival horror games then you would have definitely heard of Resident Evil. For us this is definitely one of our favourite franchises. Part of this very franchise is the character Ada Wong who is by all means a complete and total badass. However we feel she has to be one of the most inappropriately dressed characters for the task she is doing, considering that most of the time she is fighting or killing zombies, monsters or some weird combination of the two. Ada is always dressed in cocktail gowns and hot V-neck blouses, like she has to go to a ball but needed to kill zombies before going. Now of course we don’t know what the real reason for her dress sense really is and we may not find it appropriate for the task, but you won’t find us complaining while paying the game.”

So who’s got it right, and who’s got it so wrong that they deserve to wear armour that barely covers anything for the rest of eternity? Place your votes in the poll opposite or give your own suggestion in the comments below, and we’ll reveal the most popular answer on Friday, 01 December 2017 along with the next question.

Got a question you’d like to see us struggle over next month? Or would you like to join in and add your own answer into our polls on a regular basis? Leave us a message or get in touch, we’d love to hear from you!

Ivy Valentine. One arm in metal throws off her balance, she doesn’t even have a scabard for her blade, fights in high heels, and has less-than-minimal protection over her torso. Also, she wraps herself in her sword when fighting. It’s a surprise she hasn’t killed herself tripping over a small hole in the ground